Re: Record Hay Price in Hillsdale Michigan

I'm near Napoleon, Ohio and we have been getting one or two bales to the acre. So 2 bales time the $12.20 record price is $24.40.

We are trying something different on our last field though. Some of the neighbors hired the local alfalfa mill to cut the hay since they have a 20 foot header and can drop windrow to the side. They come back the other way and get a swath from 40 feet total.

It seems a lot was being lost during raking and this method is reported to yield as much as ten times more bales. I'm hoping for 15 bales to the acre with the alfalfa mill doing the cutting.

Re: Record Hay Price in Hillsdale Michigan

We wound up getting nearly 9 small square bales to the acre in the field cut by the alfalfa mill. Still not great, but much better than 1 or 2 bales we would have likely gotten if we tried to rake it all toegether.

Re: Record Hay Price in Hillsdale Michigan

9 small squares to the acre??? Was it worth it to even windrow it? sounds like a lot of chasing. Anyway, I sold some crp that i was taking out ,too cheap, but made that deal back when it still knew how to rain, here. A deal is a deal. Another farmer told me that CRP hay was misnamed, should be CRAP hay.